Achievement Strategies for Speaking
By Yunias Monica
For beginner learners, speaking in English as the target language, can be challenging and daunting. Beginner learners often find it frustrating especially when, in a conversation, meaning seems to go to the wrong direction, which is when the other speaker interprets one’s thought differently from what is meant. In this case, lack of language mastery such as vocabulary knowledge and inadequate grammar can create a communication breakdown. However, learners cannot look up their dictionary every time they want to put across their ideas. For that reason, learners can use the language learning strategies, and one of them is the so called communication strategies. These strategies are open to change, can be modified, and learned (Wenden and Rubin, 1987).
In speaking, communication strategies are divided into two big parts; achievement strategies and reduction strategies. Achievement strategies are far more helpful because they help learners to face a communication breakdown. Achievement strategies, or also called as the compensation strategies, help learners to keep using the target language due to some limitations such as lack of appropriate vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. Coughlin (2006) defines the achievement strategies as the tools that help learners to compensate language disparity by providing a replacement. In line with Coughlin, Monika (2008) explains that these strategies enable learners to keep trying in passing on their ideas, messages, and thoughts in a conversation. There are eight achievement strategies, but I will explain at least four strategies that can be employed by beginner learners of English, they are circumlocution/paraphrase, restructuring, appeal for assistance, and subsitution.
Sometimes, learners might forget a particular word that they intend to say. In this case, learners can use circumlocution strategy; it is by defining the properties of the intended object, for example, the color of the object, the function, the size, or the shape. For example, when a learner forgets the word ‘ladder’, he/she can describe it by saying “The tool that you use to climb up and down”. Oxford (1990) gives an example of a learner saying “What you use to wash dishes with?” as a description of ‘dishrag’.
As cited by Ellis (1986), Faerch and Kasper explain restructuring strategy as a strategy used by learners when they have to develop a substitute feature plan. Learners restructure their sentences until they feel that they have transmitted their intended meaning in a conversation. Faerch and Kasper give an example of this strategy when a learner said “I have two …”, and the leaner stopped and restructured the sentence with “I have a brother and a sister”. The learner did this because he/she was unable to find the word ‘sibling’ at the time when the word was required in the conversation. Learners usually reorganize sentences until the sentences sound right.
The third strategy that begginer learners can use is the appeal for assistance strategy. When begginer learners are engaged in a conversation, and they cannot recall the desired English vocabulary, learners may ask the help of another speaker to provide the absent expression by saying “What is this?” or “What is the tool we use to open the cane?” When the other party is able to provide the desired word(s), this strategy will be the fastest and the easiest one to use for begginer learners. However, to use this strategy, learners will have to observe some factors. Other factors such as the relationship between the participants and the location of the conversation will influence.
The last but not least strategy is the substitution strategy. Based on a research conducted by Monika (2008), begginer learners resort to this strategy when they explain an object or activity by using a different word. This word, however, is the one that shares semantic meanings with the target language vocabulary. As cited by Ellis (1986), Faerch and Kasper give an example of this strategy when a learner replaced the word ‘rabbit’ with ‘animal’. Though learners might omit some information of the intended word, learners still manage to pass on the idea to the interlocutor.
So, the next time you find difficulty in transferring your meaning, ideas, and thought to your interlocutor, try to use the achievement strategies. The idea of using the strategies is to help you to stay in a conversation, to tackle your challenge, to achieve your goal in a conversation, and finally to sharpen your spoken English skills. Good luck!
References:
Coughlin, M. (2006). Teaching Speaking and Conversation. http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/articles/teaching-speaking-conversation.html. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
Ellis, R. (1986). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Monika, Y. (2008). Achievement Strategies Used by Students of Speaking 1 Class in Story Telling and Informative Speech Presentations in the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. Unpublished Thesis. Salatiga: Faculty of Language and Literature of Satya Wacana Christian University.
Oxford, L.R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. Boston: Henle and Heinle Publishers.
Wenden, A., & Rubin. J. (Eds). (1987). Learners Strategies in Language Learning. New Jersey: Prentice Hall International
(published in UKRIDA Newsletter | No. 67 - Year VIII, August-September 2010)
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